Gisèle Pelicot speaks after ex-husband found guilty of rapes, sentenced to 20 years in France

AVIGNON, France — Gisèle Pelicot spoke of her "very difficult ordeal" after 51 men were all found guilty Thursday in the drugging-and-rape trial that turned her into a feminist hero, expressing support for other victims of sexual violence whose cases don't get such attention and "whose stories remain untold." "I want you to know that we share the same fight," she said in her first words after the court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years in the shocking case that stunned France and spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture. As campaigners against sexual violence protested outside the courthouse, the 72-year-old expressed "my profound gratitude towards the people who supported me." "Your messages moved me deeply, and they gave me the strength to come back, every day, and survive through these long daily hearings," she said. "This trial was a very difficult ordeal." Pelicot — now an icon for many women in France and beyond after her courageous demand that all the evidence be heard in open court — also said she was thinking of her grandchildren after enduring the more than three months of hearings that prosecuted the rapes and other abuse inflicted on her by her now ex-husband and his more than four dozen accomplices over nearly a decade. "It's also for them that I led this fight," she said of her grandchildren. "I wanted all of society to be a witness to the debates that took place here. I never regretted making this decision. I have trust in our capacity to collectively project ourselves toward a future where all, women and men, can live in harmony, with respect and mutual understanding. Thank you." The court sentenced her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping her and allowing other men to rape her while she was unconscious, knocked out by tranquilizers he hid in her food and drink. The sentence was the maximum possible under French law. He was declared guilty on all charges. At age 72, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. He won't be eligible to request early release until at least two-thirds of the sentence has been served. Dominique Pelicot and the 50 other defendants each stood up, one after the other, as chief judge Roger Arata read out first the verdicts and then the sentences — a process that took over an hour. "You are therefore declared guilty of aggravated rape on the person of Mme. Gisèle Pelicot," the judge said as he worked his way through the long list of names. Gisèle Pelicot faced the defendants in the courtroom, sometimes nodding her head as the verdicts were announced. Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, said she would consider an appeal, but also expressed hope that Gisèle Pelicot would find solace in the rulings. "I wanted Mrs. Pelicot to be able to emerge from these hearings in peace, and I think that the verdicts will contribute to this relief for Mrs. Pelicot," she said. Of the 50 accused of rape, just one was acquitted but was instead found guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Another man was also found guilty on the sexual assault charge he was tried for — meaning all 51 of the defendants were found guilty in one way or another. In a side room where defendants' family members watched the proceedings on television screens, some burst into tears and gasped as sentences were revealed. Protesters gathered outside the courthouse followed the proceedings on their phones. Some read out the verdicts and applauded as they were announced inside. Some were carrying oranges as symbolic gifts for the defendants heading to prison. Prosecutors had asked that Dominique Pelicot get the maximum penalty of 20 years and for sentences of 10 to 18 years for the others tried for rape. But the court was more lenient than prosecutors had hoped, with many sentenced to less than a decade in prison. For the defendants other than Dominique Pelicot, the sentences ranged from three to 15 years imprisonment, with some of the time suspended for some of them. Arata told six defendants they were now free, accounting for time already spent in detention while awaiting trial. Dominique Pelicot admitted that for years he drugged his then wife of 50 years so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her while he filmed the assaults. The appalling ordeal inflicted in what she had thought was a loving marriage and her courage during the bruising trial have galvanized campaigners against sexual violence and spurred calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture. The defendants were all accused of having taken part in Dominique Pelicot's sordid rape and abuse fantasies that were acted out in the couple's retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere. One of the men was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment not for assaulting Gisèle Pelicot but for drugging and raping his own wife — with help and drugs from Dominique Pelicot, who was also found guilty of raping that man's wife, too. The five judges voted by secret ballot in their rulings, with majority votes for the convictions and sentences. Campaigners against sexual violence were hoping for exemplary prison terms and viewed the trial as a possible turning point in the fight against sexual violence and the use of drugs to subdue victims. Gisèle Pelicot's courage in waiving her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushing for the hearings and shocking evidence — including videos — to be heard in open court have fueled conversations both on a national level in France and among families, couples and groups of friends about how to better protect women and the role that men can play in pursuing that goal. "Men are starting to talk to women — their girlfriends, mothers and friends — in ways they hadn't before," said Fanny Foures, 48, who joined other women from the feminist group Les Amazones in gluing messages of support for Gisèle Pelicot on walls around Avignon before the verdict. "It was awkward at first, but now real dialogues are happening," she said. "Some women are realizing, maybe for the first time, that their ex-husbands violated them, or that someone close to them committed abuse," Foures added. "And men are starting to reckon with their own behavior or complicity — things they've ignored or failed to act on. It's heavy, but it's creating change." A large banner that campaigners hung on a city wall opposite the courthouse read, "MERCI GISELE" — thank you Gisèle. Dominique Pelicot first came to the attention of police in September 2020, when a supermarket security guard caught him surreptitiously filming up women's skirts. Police subsequently found his library of homemade images documenting years of abuse inflicted on his wife — more than 20,000 photos and videos in all, stored on computer drives and catalogued in folders marked "abuse," "her rapists," "night alone" and other titles. The abundance of evidence led police to the other defendants. In the videos, investigators counted 72 different abusers, but weren't able to identify them all. Although some of the accused — including Dominique Pelicot — acknowledged that they were guilty of rape, many didn't, even in the face of video evidence. The hearings sparked wider debate in France about whether the country's legal definition of rape should be expanded to include specific mention of consent. Some defendants argued that Dominique Pelicot's consent covered his wife, too. Some sought to excuse their behavior by insisting that they hadn't intended to rape anyone when they responded to the husband's invitations to come to their home. Some laid blame at his door, saying he misled them into thinking they were taking part in consensual kink. Associated Press journalist Alex Turnbull in Paris and Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Lyon, France, contributed.